Federal judge startled by 'basic loophole' Trump created to justify 'unlawful' firing of agency president

[UpInArms]

8. From the link

"They now claim that 'if the President does not have the authority to designate acting Board members, then the President must have the authority to remove [Ms.] Aviel himself' pursuant to his inherent Article II powers," AliKhan summarized. "In other words, President Trump's inability to appoint Mr. Marocco enables him to skip past the IAF's principal officers to terminate its inferior officer."

That "has worrisome implications" if true, the judge continued, because it would mean Trump has created or discovered a "basic loophole" to "easily circumvent the general restriction on firing inferior officers by simply firing the principal officers."

"That makes no sense," AliKhan remarked, since Trump would be able to "fire an otherwise-unfireable officer by first terminating her superiors."

In parting shots, the judge called the administration's arguments "riddled with constitutional contradictions" and took a dim view of the upshot of the administration's "novel and wrong" assertion that Trump has "'inherent' Article II power to appoint acting officials" like Marocco, regardless of congressional intent.